The London Guantánamo has been campaigning since 2006 for the return of all British residents from the Guantánamo Bay prison camp, the release of all prisoners, the closure of this prison and other similar prisons and an end to the practice of extraordinary rendition. Human rights for all.

Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Today is International Day in Solidarity with the California Hunger Strikers and for Justice for Trayvon Martin. The Guantánamo Bay hunger strike will soon enter its sixth month and other campaigns supported by the LGC also involve hunger strikers, so we ask you to take action. (1) and (2) - please join the actions in London today and tomorrow & (3) and (4) please take part in the petition-signing/letter-writing campaigns. Hunger strikes are an extreme form of peaceful protest with potentially fatal consequences. Please take what action you can to support the peaceful and lawful demands of abused prisoners.

1: Press release: "Hunger for Justice" International
Day in solidarity with California Prisoner Hunger Strikers & for Justice
for Trayvon Martin, 31 July – TODAY, 5-7pm

Today, Wednesday July 31st isInternational Day of Action
in solidarity
with California Prisoner Hunger Strikers & for Justice for Trayvon Martin

On day 24 of the California Prisoner
Hunger Strike and Work Strike launched by 30,000 prisoners, communities
across the US will fast and hold events in solidarity with the hunger strikers
and their 5 core demands, and for Justice for Trayvon Martin.
Action is more urgent every day -- one of the hunger strikers, 32-year-old Billy Guero Sell, has already died, after being
refused medical help. People around the world have committed to fast
today, for 24 hours if they can, and take other action in solidarity.

A LONDON PROTEST is being held on Wed 31 JULY, at 5-7PM outside
the US EMBASSY 24 Grosvenor Square W1A 2LQ

Today’s solidarity demonstration outside the
US Embassy in London is organized by Women of Colour in the Global Women’s
Strike and is supported by the London Guantanamo Campaign, along with Legal Action for Women; Free
Mumia Abu Jamal Campaign UK; Friends of John La Rose; International Coalition
to Free the Angola 3; JENGbA (Patricia Brown);; National Forum of African
Caribbean Organisations; Mahmoud Sarsak, Palestinian prisoner hunger strike;
Marcia Rigg; Stop Isolation (Hamja Ahsan), Campaign Against Criminalising
Communities. Plus Kit & Co, blues and soul singer

Join us at 12-1pm outside the US Embassy and 1.15-2.15pm outside
Speaker’s Corner, Hyde Park, opposite Marble Arch, to call for the closure of
Guantánamo and other prisons like this.

Prisoners in California have also been on a mass hunger strike since 8
July against the practice of prolonged solitary confinement, sometimes of
decades, which many consider to be a form of torture. This month’s
demonstration will be in solidarity with both prisoner hunger strikes.

The family of Shawki Omar, a Palestinian-American held in jail on
spurious charges for the past 8 1/2 years in Iraq have joined the LGC’s
protests outside the US Embassy on a number of occasions, and have held their
own too. Mr Omar has been on hunger strike against increasing abuses in Iraqi jails
since February this year. The Iraqis have no plans to release him even though
he has been held for longer than his alleged sentence. In June, our monthly
demonstration was held in solidarity with his case.

Please write to the Iraqi and US authorities and demand actions. Find
out more here:

From Amnesty International: Ali Aarrass, a dual Belgian-Moroccan
national detained in Salé II prison near Rabat, Morocco, is on a “dry” hunger
strike (refusing water in addition to food) to protest ill-treatment at the
hands of the prison authorities. He is reportedly in a critical condition,
still conscious but unable to stand and struggling to speak. Today is day 22 of
his hunger strike.

During a US Senate hearing on the closure of Guantánamo Bay on 24 July,
statements were read out by family members of prisoners, including the children
of Shaker Aamer:

Michael: "It makes me so sad to know that even after trying to get him
out, he is still in prison. And even though he has been cleared for release, he
has been tortured. I see my dad on Skype when we speak to him. Sometimes a
guard stands behind him. We have to be very careful about what we talk about –
we can only talk about ourselves or the guards will stop the call."

Johina: "We all live our lives, passing through every day with food,
clothes and most importantly freedom. Can you imagine being locked up for 10
years? Imagine losing 10 years of your life and possibly many more years to
come if everyone sits there and does nothing about it. Try imagining being
treated like a circus animal in a cage and being taken away from your home and
everything you love. It is painful isn't it? Well, my dad has already been
through this and is going through this now."”

And Mohammed Belbacha, the brother of Ahmed Belbacha: “My family is horrified at how Ahmed and others in Guantánamo have
been treated. Algerian youth has long looked up to America for its democracy
and respect for human rights. We always associated a lot of good with it. But
now, America has lost its standing not just with our family, but with Algerian
youth as a whole. Arbitrary arrest, detention without trial, renditions and
torturous interrogation methods have cast a dark stain upon America's
reputation.

"My family
still maintains hope that Ahmed will be released soon. We know he is exhausted
after all he has suffered, but we also know that he retains a strong will to
rebuild his life. We will do all we can to help Ahmed rebuild his life."

New reports have
emerged from Shaker Aamer’s lawyers at Reprieve that the US is planning to
return him to Saudi Arabia and not to the UK and that the Saudi authorities are
involved in this, through instructions given to a Saudi lawyer to deal with his
case.

The hunger strike at
Guantánamo has now been ongoing for almost six months. The Muslim holy month of
fasting, Ramadan, started on 9 July, during which time Muslims cannot eat,
drink or take anything intravenously during the daytime. It is also the twelfth Ramadan the
prisoners, held almost wholly without charge or trial, are spending at the
prison facility. In spite of calls to suspend the painful nasal tube
force-feeding procedure used by the authorities at Guantánamo, the prison
instead decided to “synchronise” force-feeding times with the times of the
breaking of the fast, out of alleged deference to the religious practice of the
prisoners. Navy Captain Robert Durand stated, “We understand that observing
the daytime fast and taking nothing by mouth or vein is an essential component
of Muslim observance of Ramadan. And for those detainees on hunger strike we
will ensure that our preservation of life through enteral feeding does not
violate the tenets of their faith.” http://rt.com/usa/guantanamo-force-feeding-ramadan-fasting-581/
One of the reasons for the start of the mass hunger strike was the alleged desecration
of the Qur’an by prison guards and lack of respect for the prisoners’ religious
practices. The prison authorities, who did not say how they would be able to do
this, later backed down and said they would not be respecting the observed
fasting times in administering the procedure.

Days before the start
of Ramadan as well, a court case brought by four prisoners asking a judge to
order the halt of force-feeding of hunger-striking prisoners was rejected, as the judge said she would be overstepping her powers if she did so; only Barack
Obama has the authority to order a stop to this practice. Two of the litigants
in the case were British residents Shaker Aamer and Ahmed Belbacha. Judge
Gladys Kessler did however agree that there is a consensus that the practice
violates international law and called it a “painful,
humiliating and degrading process”.
In this case, lawyers have asked for the case to be reconsidered. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/08/judge-denies-guantanamo-force-feeding

In another similar
case brought by three prisoners to stop their force-feeding, another federal
judge, Rosemary M. Collyer, also said that federal courts did not have the power
to rule on prisoner treatment at Guantánamo. However, she found that there is nothing
“so shocking or inhumane in the treatment of
petitioners” and that the
prisoners had failed to show that the treatment is unreasonable.

Before the beginning
of Ramadan, the reported number of prisoners on hunger strike was around 100
with 45 or so being force fed. The number has fallen to around 70 during
Ramadan, with some prisoners accepting some meals or all for this period. Some plan to resume the hunger strike after Ramadan. This
has prompted reports, by a media and military that denied the existence of the
hunger strike for three months, that the hunger strike may be coming to an end.
With no attempt to address the prisoners’ demands that is unlikely.

On 11 July, in another court case involving prisoners, a
federal judge called for a halt to intrusive physical searches of prisoners who
meet their lawyers. In his judgment, Judge Royce Lamberth stated that the
policy “flagrantly disregards” cultural and religious considerations and
undermines Barack Obama’s own recently stated declarations on the prisoners at
Guantánamo Bay. The ruling also included an opinion to allow prisoners
debilitated by the hunger strike to meet their lawyers in their camps instead
of being transported elsewhere.

The purported circumstances surrounding the death of prisoner Adnan
Latif in September last year provide the rationale that such searches had to be enforced to
prevent prisoners from killing themselves.

Rather than be subject to such abusive searches, prisoners are choosing
not to meet their lawyers instead.

Lawyers for prisoners at Guantánamo Bay have been notified by a
government official that those prisoners subject to indefinite detention, who
cannot be tried as the evidence against them was obtained by torture or is
confidential, and cannot be released, will have their cases reviewed to
determine whether or not they should continue to be held indefinitely and
without charge or trial. A new Periodic Review Board will be set up to review
their detention. At least 71 prisoners should benefit from this review. A step
in the right direction, it is still a small victory, and no timetable has been
provided for the reviews, although the prisoners will be given sufficient
notice; the US must release prisoners it does not have sufficient legal grounds
to hold.

On 24 July, for the first time since 2009, a Senate hearing was held on
Guantánamo Bay “Closing Guantanamo: The National
Security, Fiscal, and Human Rights Implications” by the Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil
Rights and Human Rights and sponsored by Senator Dick Durbin. A major event, it was
so well attended that proceedings had to be moved to a larger room and the
public was invited to watch in yet another room via a TV link. Speakers with
proposals for and against the closure of Guantánamo included Senators Durbin
(for) and Cruz (against), with supporting evidence from Brig Gen Dr Stephen
Xenakis from Physicians for Human Rights, the director of Human Rights First and right-wing Islamophobe Frank
Gaffney. No new arguments or reasons were offered and the old lines of why
Guantánamo Bay should close or remain open were redrawn. Statements were read
out by family members of prisoners (see above). The meeting was notably not
attended by any White House representative, and at the same time Congress
debated and passed a defence bill preventing the transfer of Guantánamo prisoners
to the US mainland or elsewhere and attempts to block the expansion of
facilities there. http://thehill.com/blogs/defcon-hill/policy-and-strategy/313371-house-passes-595-billion-defense-spending-bill

For the first time in over a year, the Obama administration has said
that it is seeking to return two prisoners home to Algeria. No more details
have been given about the identity of the two prisoners and Algeria is a
country that poses a security risk to returnees, with some prisoners, including
British resident Ahmed Belbacha, preferring to remain at Guantánamo rather than
return home, where they face the risk of further persecution. This positive announcement
comes ahead of a visit by Yemen’s president to the US where the repatriation of
the remaining Yemeni prisoners, who make up the largest nationality group, will be an issue
of discussion.

Panama wasted an opportunity to help bring a CIA agent convicted of
kidnap and involvement in extraordinary rendition to justice on 18 July when it detained
former CIA chief Robert Lady who was convicted in absentia in Italy for his
role in the 2003 kidnap, rendition and torture in Egypt of Osama Mustafa Hassan
who was kidnapped with the help of Italian intelligence agents in broad
daylight in the streets of Milan. Italy was initially thought to have a
two-month period in which to formally seek his extradition, however he was released
and sent back to the US the next day, with Panama claiming it was powerless to
act as it does not have an extradition treaty with Italy and Italy had sent insufficient
documentation. Lady was sentenced to 9 years in jail. http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/07/19/uk-usa-panama-cia-idUKBRE96I10T20130719

British-Somali dual national Mahdi Hashi, 23, who had British citizenship
revoked without notice shortly before “disappearing” in Somalia last summer and
then resurfacing months later in the US under FBI custody, after being charged
with providing material support to a terrorist-group, and where he currently
faces trial, is currently appealing the loss of his British citizenship, a
country he has lived in for over 20 years, and a move which facilitated his
extraordinary rendition to the US. This measure, which is used increasingly by
the British government, is subject to secrecy laws and part of the hearing will
be heard behind closed doors without the knowledge of Hashi’s UK lawyers or
family, at the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC). In this case,
rather than extradite Hashi, who has never charged in the UK, this has facilitated his “rendition” to face charges
under the US’s complex anti-terrorism laws which allow evidence, such as that
obtained through torture, that would not be allowed elsewhere.

The date of the July monthly
“Shut Down Guantánamo!” demonstration coincided with US Independence Day, 4
July. At lunchtime, the LGC teamed up with the Save Shaker Aamer Campaign
(SSAC) as part of its then daily weekday protest outside the Houses of
Parliament to stage a protest and force-feeding demonstration.

demonstration on 18 July to mark final day of protest for Shaker Aamer

The hunger strike at Guantánamo Bay reached
its 150th day on 5 July. The LGC was one of the organisations that contributed to reporting on the situation by the TV channel
Russia Today: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhD824Rx5wk

The SSAC’s daily weekday protest opposite
the House of Parliaments, supported throughout by the LGC, held since May, came
to an end with the close of Parliament for the summer on 18 July. A larger demonstration
was held to mark the end of a successful action which had seen more than 50
people take part in the rolling and visual protest. Dan Viesnik from the LGC
was one of the speakers at this final demonstration.

Monday, July 29, 2013

In
early July, the human rights NGO Reprieve,
which represents some of the Guantánamo prisoners, launched a new Stand Fast for Justice
(#standfast) campaign, inviting the public to show solidarity with the
Guantánamo hunger strikers by pledging to go on hunger strike for a period of
time themselves. Well-known figures have taken part, with the process kicked
off by human rights lawyer and Reprieve director, CliveStafford-Smith.
He was then followed by comedian Frankie
Boyle and actor Julie Christie. The relay has now been picked up by 81-year
old human rights activist and director of Widows for Peace Margaret Owen. Below
Ms Owen gives her reasons for undertaking the hunger strike, followed by a
report of her first day (Sunday 28 July).

Many
other individuals have also pledged to hunger strike. Another human rights
activist who has done so is actor Romany Blythe. Below are her reasons for
pledging to go on hunger strike as well.

Well
done to everyone who has taken part in this action and taking a stand for
Shaker Aamer and the other prisoners in Guantánamo Bay.

Shaker Aamer, a British resident with a British citizen wife living in
London, has been incarcerated in Guantanamo, subjected to extreme
torture, often kept in solitary confinement, for the last eleven
years. Yet he is, according not only to his lawyers, but even finally
acknowledged by the US, totally innocent of any acts of terrorism.

He has never been charged or brought before a US court. Bounty hunters
picked him up, when he was running an Islamic charity in Afghanistan, and sold
him to the Americans,who, in 2001, were offering huge sums for the capture off
suspected Al Qaida operatives. It is now well accepted that all the
documentation proffered in his case to the Americans was false.

The UK government, under Labour and the Coalition, have requested both Bush and
Obama to release Shaker, who is the last British resident still in Guantanamo.
They have refused. Shaker, educated, intelligent, a loving husband and
father, has never even seen his youngest daughter, now 11 years old. Everyone
now released, who knew him in this infamous prison, speak of the terrible
tortures inflicted on him, of his bravery in speaking up for other detainees,
and of his
rational reasonable demands that his captors at least abide by the Geneva
Conventions and humanitarian and human rights international law. He was the
spokesman for the detainees, trying to protect them, even when his protests on
their behalf endangered his own life.

We must all
do everything possible to get Shaker released, and this hunger strike is
something I can and want to do. We all, in the human rights community, now know
that MI5 have been energetic participants in these tortures, which included
beatings,pretended assassination, cruel deliberately painful false feeding when
Shaker was on hunger strike, and worse.

It seems clear that the main reason the US will not release Shaker is that he
will thereafter speak out not only about the torture. - such torture that in
one day a few years ago three brothers died when with Shaker they were taken to
the notorious "No Camp" outside the main facility where unspeakable
horrors were perpetrated - but he will also be able to provide evidence of MI5
collaboration with the US torture machine and destroy the myth that the US does
not "do torture.
(Ironically, a claim just made today to the Russians in the US request
for the extradition of Edward Snowdon!)

I am, yes, in my 82nd year, but should my health deteriorate, it is a small
thing to risk compared to the present life of 45 year old Shaker, younger than
my youngest son.

I am a human rights lawyer, with my main focus on the rights of widows and
wives of the disappeared in conflict and post conflict scenarios, But Shaker's
wife has been a "half-widow" for eleven long years, and she is in my
thoughts and my prayers every day. Mother of four
children, her own physical and mental health is seriously impaired. Whilst in
that horrendous infernal Guantanamo, the shame of the US, Shaker, who has lost
nearly half his original body-weight, is,
according to his lawyer, Clive Stafford-Smith, now dying.

My friends and relations tell me I am wasting my time. My hunger strike will
have no effect. I will ruin my health. Well. If Julie Christie, aged 72,
has not eaten for a week, then I can do the same.
She is a celebrity, I am not in that class but I hope that others will join me
and our actions will force William Hague to redouble his efforts to secure
Shaker's release.

Sunday
28 July: It is odd. I had not realised before how mealtimes, their spacing,
preparation of food, is basic to the organisation of the day. Meals, even if
snacks at lunch time, somehow provide the framework in which we work and relax,
meet deadlines, socialise and relax. For the next seven days this pattern won't
be there. But then immediately I think
of Shaker, years and years of nothingness except beatings, torture, and
solitary confinement. I am not in solitary, am not living in fear and in pain.
Am not separated from my family.

Ever since I announced this action, I am receiving many messages, which are of
two kinds: those that berate me for risking my health ( I will not for I will
drink lots of water daily) and tell me my strike will have no effect and that I
should confine my campaigning work to what they think I know most about -
women's rights.And the others,
many, the most, from all sorts of people, wishing me well, wanting also to
join, promising to lobby their MPs, Congressmen, etc.

I am thinking of Shaker Aamer and I hope fervently that somehow he will hear
that we in the UK are battling for his release; that our efforts will give him
courage to survive so that one day, a soon as can be, he is united with his
mourning family. Insh’Allah

-------

Romany
Blythe:

It
used to be that a British citizen and even those on British soil had the
protection of the British justice system.
A justice system that was the envy of the world. Then cam 9/11 and everybody
panicked and politicians saw an opportunity.
An opportunity to assert more control over the people by the state. We gave our
protection for our citizens and agreed a new extradition treaty with the US on
the grounds that they would reciprocate, although having promised to do so they
never have. In our new situation. We give up our citizens without even a
request for evidence as to their crimes. We question not, the right of the US
to hold juries diction over British citizens yet we demand no such rights of
extradition in return. There is however mounting pressure in parliament to over
turn this agreement that denies Britain sovereignty over it's own citizen. As a
citizen of the United Kingdom you can no longer rely on the protection of the
UK no mater what the colour of your skin. One you could expect that the validity
of the evidence against you would be tried in this country, under our justice
system. Now you are to be handed over on a whim with no submission of evidence.

The United States Department of Defence held a total of nine British detainees
at Guantanamo Bay detention camp. All the British citizens have been
repatriated. Shaker Aameris the last British resident held in
Guantánamo Bay. He has not been charged and he has not been trialled. Aamer has
never been charged with any wrongdoing, has never received a trial, and his
lawyer says he is "totally innocent". He was cleared for release by
the Bush administration in 2007, and the Obama administration in 2009but remains in Guantánamo. He has been described as
a charismatic leader who spoke up and fought for the rights of fellow prisoner
and some have speculated that this might be a reason for his continued
detention. Aamer says that he has been subject to torture while in detention.

Image from a play about Guantánamo by Romany Blythe

Aamer's
mental and physical health has been declining over the years, as he has
participated in hunger strike to protest detention condition and been held in
solitary confinement for much of the time. He has lost 40 per cent of his body
weight in captivity.
It is said that he is dying. He has now been on hunger strike for more than 150
days. He has a 10 year old son, he has never seen. His children have grown up
without him.
Aamer's family now live in Battersea, South London. His wife Zin Aamer has
suffered from depression and mental episodes since his arrest. Saeed Siddique,
Aamer's father-in-law, said in 2011, "When he was captured, Shaker offered
to let my daughter divorce him, but she said, 'No, I will wait for you.' She is
still waiting.

It is illegal in this country for our government or its officers to engage in
or collude in turture. Force feeding and solitary confinement are considered to
be acts of torture by the European court of human rights. Further Shaker has endured
much of the shocking forms of torture that we have come to associate with
Guantanamo and he says this was performed on him in front of MI5/MI6
operatives.
Are we now become a country that denies it's citizens their human rights? Where
governments in a cavalier fashion now systematically break this countries own
laws? it is not the wicked and terrible plighjt of one man that is the issure
here but the right of the British people to a fair justice system for all!
At a time when I young British man with Asperger’s Syndrome Talha Hussain sits
in solitary confinement in a US prison, never having committed any crime in or
against that country. Never previously having left British soil. Should we not
now fear for all our freedoms! it is is not a case of do not do wrong and you
will be all right. With the loss of our right to legal aid none of us are safe
now. This is a campaign for the release of one man, but it is a fight for all
our basic rights to justice!

Take action!

We hold a regular monthly demonstration calling for the closure of Guantánamo Bay. Our March demonstration is on Thursday 8 March at 12-2pm outside the US Embassy, 33 Nine Elms Ln, London SW11 7US: https://www.facebook.com/events/975903689224552/

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About Me

The London Guantánamo Campaign has been campaigning since 2006 for the return of all British residents from the Guantánamo Bay prison camp, the release of all prisoners, the closure of this prison and other similar prisons and an end to the practice of extraordinary rendition. Also on Facebook and Twitter.